Adaptations of Love
by wdreamynightmare
Summary: DISCONTINUED *PostMovie* Sam's graduated, Bumblebee's admittedly in love and Wheeljack has plans that are surprisingly diplomatic in nature. Sam x Bee, Swerve x Mikaela
1. Chapter One

**Title:** Adaptations of Love

**Pairings:**Sam/Bee and Swerve/Mikaela

**Rating:** NC-17 (eventually)

**Author's Notes:** This is going to be a multi-part fic so please be patient as we churn out the chapters around schoolwork, work and sleepy-time. We LOVE reviews!! We also LOVE FanArt, so if you can't think of anything to write but you can draw, we're happy! Also, a small part of this fic is in answer to Umashino's challenge at the LJ community "Check on the Rep" to make Bumblebee look different than the standard white/Caucasian, blond-haired, blue-eyed guy, so you won't find any of that here.

**Summary:** Sam's graduated, Bumblebee's admittedly in love and Wheeljack has plans that are surprisingly diplomatic in nature.

**Adaptations of Love**

By Nightmare and Winged Dreamer

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**Chapter 01**

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Humans were such a fascinating species. He wasn't a scientist and he never would be, but like millions of humans that found themselves enamored of another culture, a television show, an author, a poet, Bumblebee found himself enthralled by the entire human race. It was the way the tiny creatures persevered despite all of the hardships that befell them and the way they went on loving and hoping, knowing that their death drew closer with every beat of their tiny hearts. It was how they went on pretending they had an eternity ahead of them when they all knew full well that their time in existence was very limited that he would never be able to fathom. They just did so _much_ with what little time was given them. It was nothing short of amazing.

And if he was enthralled by the entire human race then he was completely enraptured by his charge. Bumblebee would never forget the day that he had at last tracked down Samuel James Witwicky. The way the boy's hand had felt the first time it had smoothed along the very edge of the roof of what had appeared to be nothing more than a ratty old yellow Camaro, would never forget the way it felt the first time Sam had settled into the driver's seat and laid his hands on the steering wheel. The boy had seemed so fragile. Well, Sam had disproved that first assessment and fast, facing down Barricade, Frenzy and even Megatron very nearly by himself. And Sam had done far more than impress the Autobot's recon specialist with his bravery and determination. The boy had stood by him in the worst possible situations, trusted him when most other sentients would have run screaming, and refused to abandon him when Bumblebee himself – crippled and nearly useless – was unable to do more than hand the All Spark to one very heroic, very young human male and pray that Sam would make it through the next few hours alive. It hadn't even taken one hour before Sam had resolved the core of the Autobot-Decepticon war. A war that had lasted for millennia was stopped by one small Earth boy. Megatron was probably rolling over in his grave as the human phrase went.

_Humanophile._

The voice-sensation over the WiFi was amused and teasing, and though the little red Corvette beside him showed no outward signs of being anything but a little red Corvette, the glossy candy apple shell hid the Autobot soldier Swerve just as Bumblebee's own sunshine and shadow Camaro camouflaged him. Swerve of all the other Autobots was the most aware of how Bumblebee truly felt about his human charge, but like a good friend he never let on near the more oblivious Autobots. It wasn't wrong by any means to fall in love with another species so long as they were sentient, but Swerve respected Bumblebee's privacy and Sam's total and utter obliviousness where his "car's" emotions were concerned. Bumblebee was okay with that he supposed. There wasn't much else he could do, but just accept things the way they were. Humans were a bit touchy when it came to interspecies romance. A pity as the Autobots were far more open minded than that.

_You, Swerve, are just jealous because Sam prefers my company to the company of "big, dumb jocks" that drip burger dressings all over the upholstery and constantly want to "fuck" on the hood,_ Bumblebee retorted. Silence was his only answer. It wasn't that he had insulted Swerve. Not at all. It was just that Swerve couldn't argue the facts, and it was no secret between them that the fairly recently arrived Autobot was falling fast for his own human charge, Sam's ex-girlfriend Mikaela. Swerve was less fascinated by the species as a whole, but he was very interested in a human that could make him "purr" just by asking him to pop the hood. It was almost comical how fast Swerve exposed some of his more intricate parts to her when she asked.

A sudden roar from the direction of the gymnasium of Sam's school stole both their attentions. Any minute now, Sam would come walking out of the building with his parents, close relatives and friends in tow. Bumblebee couldn't wait to hear all about the high school graduation ceremony. Sam's entire life was as interesting as the entire planet as far as Bumblebee was concerned.

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"Freedom!" Sam crowed, rushing out of the stands to find his two best friends. It wasn't hard to find Miles and Mikaela among the throng of other new graduates, and he threw an arm around them both. "We, my friends, are now free men! School's out forever!" he half sang, half yelled, and planted enthusiastic kisses on his friends' cheeks.

"Jeez, man! You are psycho today!" Laughing, Miles elbowed Sam in the gut and wormed out from under his arm, making a show of wiping his cheek. "And no, I am _not_ singing Alice Cooper with you," he firmly stated just as Sam opened his mouth to ask.

"Oh, come _on_, Miles! Just this once." Sam clapped his hands together and put on his best puppy eyes. "Please?"

Rolling her eyes and laughing, Mikaela pushed Sam in the shoulder. A mock-exasperated shake of her head made her perfect hair tremble in its fashionably haphazard bun, the thick, nearly black locks threatening to ditch her decorative hair-chopsticks and cascade around her pretty face at any moment. "You really are the strangest boy I've ever met! You belong in an insane asylum, I swear!"

Sam stuck his tongue out at her and turned back to Miles. "Pleeeeeeeease? Just one time! Just one!"

"No! Look, there are your parents. Go ask your dad or something." Miles shoved Sam in the direction of the older Witwickys, spotting his own parents coming down from the upper stands. Waving, he pushed Sam towards Mikaela and started walking a little faster.

"Dad won't sing it with me! Are you crazy?" Sam called after him.

"I won't sing what with you?" Ron Witwicky nodded to Miles as he strode past and gave his son a questioning look.

Mikaela smiled in greeting of Sam's parents and then laid a hand on Sam's shoulder. "Sam wants you to sing an Alice Cooper song with him. See you later. My Aunt's taking me out tonight, and I'm sure you know who is getting bored out in the parking lot by now."

"Bye, Mikaela," Judy Witwicky called after the retreating girl and waved back when she received a wave in response.

Sam blinked at Mikaela's retreating back for a split second, then headed straight for the parking lot.

"Oh no you don't." Ron grabbed the back of Sam's graduation gown, forcibly making him slam on the brakes. "We have a reservation for dinner, and you are _not_ disappearing in that car of yours until we are done eating and we've discussed the plans for the family trip. Are we clear?"

Wriggling out of his father's grip, Sam turned around and nodded with almost too much enthusiasm. "Crystal. I promise to not disappear until after dinner. Got it. But there's no point in leaving him behind in the school parking lot, so why don't I just follow you guys?" At Ron's suspicious look, he held his hands up in a placating show of honesty. "I swear I'll follow and won't take off! Cross my heart."

Ron gazed at him for a moment more, then shook his head in amused defeat. "Yeah, alright. Crazy kid."

"Yes!" Sam punched the air and sped off, weaving between the multitudes of people to his beloved Camaro. After patting the Corvette's hood in a distracted greeting, he dove into the Camaro's driver's seat and gripped the steering wheel, running his palms over supple leather. What he really wanted to do was give the hiding Autobot a hug, but even as exciting as the evening was and Sam's reputation for being a little weird, hugging a car would draw unwarranted attention. "Hey, Bee! Didja miss me?"

He grinned as the leather seat behind him seemed to mold ever-so-slightly to his back, as if wrapping him in a welcoming embrace. The radio, as it usually did, clicked on in response. "_I'll remember you, and baby that's forever true, and you're the one that I'll always miss._"

"Missed you, too, buddy. Alright, let's go find Trailbreaker so we can follow him to wherever Mom and Dad made the dinner reservations. Sorry, Bee, but we won't be able to talk until after dinner." Boy and living machine hadn't been able to stop talking about Sam's graduation for the past month, most of their discussions centering around what such a step signified in the human's life and how different it was from a Cybertronian's coming of age. Sam knew Bumblebee was eager to hear what the ceremony had been like so he could marvel at yet another human novelty, which never failed to amuse the young man.

"_'Till later, 'Till later tonight. 'Cause tonight always comes_," the radio sang as the Camaro's engine revved up and the gear shift slid into reverse. As if in the hands of a professional driver, the yellow and black Camaro executed a smooth backward glide to exit its parking space, shifted into drive as soon as it was clear of the cars on either side of it and rolled forward, making a B-line for the dark blue GMC Canyon truck idling patiently near the entrance to the school parking lot. As soon as the Camaro neared, the Canyon instantly let off the brake and rolled out onto the street, little yellow car trailing just behind.

"True enough. Hey Bee, play 'School's Out Forever'? Please?" At least Sam could count on Bumblebee to "sing" it with him. After discovering that the Autobot could save a virtually unlimited number of audio files to his memory banks, Sam had proceeded to feed every last one of his CDs into the Camaro's stereo so Bee could download them all and thus be able to "talk" with more than just the radio and whatever he happened to find on the internet.

Almost instantly the eight speaker sound system began to blare Alice Cooper's "School's Out." Bumblebee was always more than happy to "sing" along with whatever Sam wanted to hear if it made Sam happy.

Grinning, Sam belted out the anthem of many a new graduate as they followed Trailbreaker.

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"I can't believe they said you have to stay behind!" Sam griped, throwing a rock at the nearest tree to vent his frustrations. Sadly, not even the solid thunk of the rock hitting bark did any good. "A family trip is supposed to be a _family_ trip, and you're part of the family! But no, 'we can't take more than one car. It'll look too strange,'" he falsettoed, imitating his mother's voice. Throwing another rock, Sam gave up on that means of relief and dropped down onto the grass next to Bumblebee's leg to lean against the solid metal. "This so sucks."

Normally when Sam and Bee visited clearings deep in the forests covering the Rocky Mountains, it was to hang out and talk about anything that came to mind – which usually ended up in comparisons of human to Cybertronian life and the fascination each participant had for the species of the other. This was supposed to be _their_ time, and here Sam had to ruin it with complaints about how unreasonable his parents were being. Talk about a bad ending to what was supposed to be a wonderful day.

"I understand their logic." Bumblebee spoke softly, his bright blue optics trained on the tiny human leaning so comfortably against him. "And Chromia is more than capable of handling any Decepticons that come her way at least long enough for back-up to arrive. But I dislike the idea of my charge, my best friend, being out of my range during this time of high risk."

"And I told them that! I told them that Optimus gave you the job of protecting me and that you can't exactly protect me if you're not_there_, since that argument tends to hold more water with them than me just_wanting_ you to come along, which I do because I _know_ how much you'd love traveling around. But no! 'Bumblebee can't hold all the luggage, and Chromia's perfectly capable of protecting all three of us.' And you can't simply follow because 'he'll be in a parking lot all day long and so there's no point.' We're going to the Grand Canyon! There would be plenty of opportunities for you and me to go somewhere where you won't be seen and for us to have fun! Stupid..." Grumbling, Sam bumped the side of his head against Bee's paneling and muttered curses under his breath.

"They are only trying to be reasonable, and I think," Bumblebee began, but stopped short. "Excuse me," he added after a moment and then fell completely silent.

Sam looked up at his best friend and watched as the Autobot's glowing optics dimmed a little, much like a human's eyes going blank, as he focused on something only he could hear. "What is it?" asked Sam when Bee's optics brightened again. "Who was calling you?"

"Optimus," Bee answered. "He was 'calling' to request that I return to base for the two weeks or so that you and your family will be gone. He says that it is important and that he will ensure that you and your mom and dad are well protected while I am away."

"Which means that you wouldn't have been able to come along _anyway_. Great." Sighing, Sam leaned more heavily on Bumblebee's leg. Orders were orders, and Sam knew Optimus wouldn't call Bee away without good reason. "When do you have to leave?"

"The same day that you leave with your parents and Chromia."

"So in a couple days then. At least you won't be leaving immediately."

"Optimus sees no legitimate reason to change the guard around you and your family until it is absolutely necessary. Now, tell me about your graduation ceremony, please."

Bee's overly polite request managed to get a small smirk out of Sam. Even in his worst moods, he could never fail to be amused at Bumblebee's insistence at sounding like an actor out of some old black-and-white detective movie. "Some day, I swear, I _will_ get you to talk like a normal person. Closet punk," he teased. Leaning away from Bee's leg, Sam scooted around on the grass until he sat directly in front of his best friend. "What do you want to hear first?"

"The beginning is usually the best place to start." Antennae rising with curiosity, Bumblebee resettled himself more comfortably in front of Sam and gave almost his entire attention over to the young human as he began to speak.

"Well, it started with a lot of saying hi to classmates and taking a _lot_ of pictures," Sam began, latching onto the familiar routine of relating his day to the ever-inquisitive Autobot.

**TBC…**

Song Credits:

"I'll Always Miss You" by JoJo

"Later Tonight" by the Pet Shop Boys

"School's Out" by Alice Cooper


	2. Chapter One and a Half

**Adaptations of Love**

By Winged Dreamer and Nightmare

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Author's Notes: A little insert because we can. Think of it as a relevant drabble.

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**Chapter 01.5 (Interlude)**

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One week.

It seemed like such an infinitesimally small amount of time to him and yet, at the same time, it felt like an eternity at this point. But then, his entire sense of time was skewed now, wasn't it? Just one human week…

Already the separation was unbearable. Oh, he could function. He could operate like he always did, following orders with the usual precision. He was just… distracted. Spacing out, as the "twins" kept calling it when they caught him staring into his own memory banks for just a glimpse of Sam. Bumblebee made a sound that was the Cybertronian equivalent of a forlorn sigh and swallowed the last of his latest ration of Energon. He got more of it than the others at least for right now while he was expending so much energy in experiment after experiment and test after trial after test. Ratchet and Wheeljack would be expecting him in the research hangar soon both as eager as he for the completion of the project that had called him away from his duty to his human charge but for their own reasons. Ratchet wanted the experiments over with so that he could stop worrying about Bumblebee getting blown up by his interface-partner or vise versa. Wheeljack wanted the experiments completed so that he would have the answers to the questions posed. And Bumblebee himself? He wanted the experiments to reach completion so that he could speed back home and be there when Sam returned. According to Wheeljack as of last night, however, that wasn't going to happen because Sam, his family and Mikaela were going to be brought to the Autobots' new home base for a tour. That meant that Bumblebee would just have to sit tight for another two weeks before seeing Sam again. Irritating, but doable.

Two more weeks…

It was going to be a long, long fourteen human days.

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Sam tossed and turned on the overly large motel bed, trying his best to stay quiet about it so he wouldn't wake up his parents. But once again he just. Couldn't. Sleep.

Frustrated, he slipped out of bed and padded over to the window. A small tug on the heavy curtains pulled them aside just enough for him to spot Chromia sitting out in the parking lot, looking for all the world just like another family van among the other cars. It hurt to not see Bumblebee sitting next to her, resting in the Autobot version of standby mode, patiently waiting for Sam to wake up so they could spend another day or hour or even minute together.

It only took a couple minutes of searching to find the room key in his mother's purse, then another couple to dig out his brand new digital camera from his backpack. Quiet as a shadow, he slipped out into the parking lot. A light touch to Chromia's door popped the lock and he climbed into her driver's seat, comforted a little by the welcoming warmth in the fabric at his back. At least _she_ understood how much Sam hated to be separated from his best friend. Most days, Sam was convinced that his parents didn't quite understand that their "cars" were indeed alive with just as broad a range of emotions as any human and just as intelligent, if not more so.

Folding his legs beneath him, Sam turned on his camera and slowly went through the almost thousand pictures he had taken in just the past ten days since they'd arrived at the Grand Canyon. He deleted the few really bad shots, but the rest he kept, wanting to have as many as possible to show Bee when they got home. Already Sam was thinking of how to tell Bee about everything he saw, all the people he'd met, how much they needed to go back so Bee could actually see for himself all the things in the pictures… all while Bumblebee listened with rapt attention, always eager to hear Sam's stories.

Now even more lonely than he had been a few minutes ago, Sam turned off the camera and ran a light hand over the steering wheel. "Hey, Chromia. Do you mind if I sleep in here tonight?" She may not be Bumblebee, but she was still his friend and infinitely more understanding than his parents.

The radio softly clicked on, searching for only a moment before finding the right song. "_Goodnight my angel, time to close your eyes. And save these questions for another day…_"

Sam smiled and stroked the wheel again. "Thanks, Chromia." He leaned the seat back and curled up on his side. This time, he fell asleep almost instantly.

**TBC…**

Song Credits:

"Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel)" by Billy Joel


	3. Chapter Two

**Adaptations of Love**

By Winged Dreamer and Nightmare

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**Chapter Two**

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Ron growled in frustration as the floor beneath him continued to shake from Sam bouncing his legs in the van's backseat despite how many times he had told him to stop. Ever since they had crossed the city boundary, the youngest Witwicky had been anxious to get home and talk to his Camaro for the first time in two weeks. It was starting to drive Ron crazy. "Sam, will you stop that! Judy, tell your son to sit _still_ already!"

"Oh, Ron. He's just excited to see that car... robot... alien again. No, offense, Chromia." Judy patted the dashboard in front of her affectionately like she would pat a friend's shoulder and then went back to her scarf knitting.

"Autobot, Mom. Au-to-bot," Sam corrected just as his father retorted with, "I can understand he's excited, but that doesn't mean he has to shake the car apart! Sam, please, just stop for five minutes! Jeez... Look, it's been a nice, relaxing two weeks and I would like to end this vacation on a g_ood_ note."

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry." Sighing, Sam stopped wriggling and tried to content himself with staring out the window. While he liked Chromia and all – she reminded him very much of a female version of Ironhide – she wasn't Bumblebee and Sam was going to go crazy if he didn't see his best friend again and soon. There was so much for Sam to tell about his trip and he couldn't wait to see Bee's face when he showed him all the pictures he'd taken.

It was at that moment that Chromia turned into the Witwicky driveway. The Uplander's engine revved, an unusual sound from the normally quiet block, and at almost the same moment Judy asked, "Sam, do you know that black car with the flames? Is it, y'know, one of them?"

"What?" Undoing his seatbelt, Sam leaned forward between the front seats. In their driveway, where Bumblebee was supposed to be parked, was an old, black Firebird Trans Am with flames on the nose. Confused, he didn't even wait for Chromia to stop before he opened the side door and hopped out, completely ignoring his father's loud scold. A quick glance at the truck next to the Trans Am showed no indication that Trailbreaker had any problems with the presence of the new car, meaning it was probably another Autobot. Maybe with a message from Optimus? Oh god, what if something was wrong with Bumblebee?! Fear churned in Sam's stomach as he strode up to the new car and patted it on the roof, asking, "Hey, what's going on? Is everything okay? Is Bee okay?"

In response the Trans Am popped the driver's door open, gently bumping Sam's hip. From within the vehicle the radio fuzzed with static before a deep, resonating voice filtered out through the old car's new speakers. "Sam, this is Optimus Prime. I am sorry that Bumblebee is not there to greet you on your return, but he is still performing the duties I requested of him. He sends his own apologies as well. The Autobot I have sent in his stead in the newly arrived Hotshot. Please be patient with his..."

The audio file fell silent with the hiss of static.

"Please be patient with his what? Hey, I know there was more to that!" Sam slapped Hotshot's roof in frustration.

Another second ticked by in silence before the audio file resumed. "...Still, he is a good and loyal soldier. I would also like to take this moment to offer you and your family an invitation to visit New Tyger Pax at the end of this week at which time you will be reunited with Bumblebee. It is our sincere hope that you will accept. Until we meet again, Sam. Optimus Prime out."

Sam was about to demand that Hotshot play the bit he had clearly edited out when Trailbreaker popped his door open hard enough to actually rock the smaller Autobot on impact. The human stared for a brief moment before snickering. "I'm asking Optimus what you left out. Don't think I won't," he threatened, patting the roof one last time, then walked back to his very confused parents. "That's Hotshot. Optimus still needs Bee back at base, so Hotshot's subbing for him. And Optimus invited us to visit the base at the end of the week."

Judy looked over her son's shoulder and waved to their guest with an enthusiastic grin. "I don't know. We just got back from vacation, but if Mr. Prime is offering us a look at their new base, well, I don't see how we can refuse. Ron?"

Her husband shrugged. "So long as the visit doesn't take any longer than the weekend, sure, because I have to be back in the office on Monday. Where is their base, anyway?"

"I don't know, Bee never told me. All I know is it's on some land the government gave them."

"Well, I'm sure that we'll be taking all of them with us, so if push comes to shove your father and I can just have Trailbreaker or Chromia bring us back here. I'm not saying that I want you to stay there as long as you please, but if you wanted to stay longer than the weekend, Sam, I don't see how it would be a problem."

"And you complain about _me_ being too easy on him," Ron grumbled good-naturedly, pulling a suitcase out of the van as Sam whooped. "Hey, Sam, help me take these back into the house."

"Yes, sir!" Grinning at the very idea of spending more than a couple days at Autobot City or whatever they'd named it – New Tyger Pax, that was it – Sam grabbed another suitcase and hauled it into the house. Once they were done moving everything, he began to wash Chromia as a thank you for transporting them all over the western United States for two weeks.

"Are you excited to go see everyone again?" asked Sam, in the middle of scrubbing bug guts of Chromia's windshield. The windows had been rolled down so she could talk to him through the radio just as Bumblebee did.

"_Upside down! Bouncing off the ceiling!_" filtered out the window. A few days in the presence of Bumblebee had taught the other Witwicky Guardians well how to communicate through the radio even if they weren't quite as fluid or creative with it as their teacher.

Sam laughed. "Yeah, me too. I wonder how Ironhide's doing," he teased, knowing full well how close Chromia was to the weapons specialist.

"_The more things change the more they stay the same. Everything's right as rain_," the radio responded after a little pause for Chromia to find the right song.

"You know, maybe we can convince Optimus to give you some time off," he continued to tease playfully. "Trade guard duty with someone else for a while so you can help back at the city. You too, Trailbreaker. I mean, you guys have been here, what, over half a year now and you've both spent most of that time playing baby-sitter to my parents." Finished with the windshield, Sam moved on to the tires.

"What's with the Trans Am?" Mikaela's voice easily carried from the edge of the driveway.

Sam glanced up only long enough to give Mikaela a brief wave with his rag, focused on getting all the road dirt off of Chromia's wheel covers. "Hey. That's Hotshot. He's subbing for Bee while Bee does some stuff for Optimus. What's up?"

"Who're Hotshot, Bee, and Optimus?" That was _not_ Mikaela's voice.

'Oh shit.' Sam froze for half a breath before getting to his feet and putting on what he hoped was the most unsuspicious smile in the world. "Miles. Hey. What are you doing here?" Mikaela was so going to die for not cluing him in to Miles' presence. They had managed to keep the existence of the Autobots from him for this long and to let something so stupid as a verbal slip give the them away was horrifically embarrassing, not to mention dangerous.

"We're here to say hi and see how your trip went." Confused by the overly huge smile on his friend's face, Miles could only give him an odd look. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing," said Sam with an exaggerated shrug. "Hotshot's the name of the Trans Am. Bee's my car, and he needed some work done 'cause he was starting to sound a little funny. I think a couple rocks or something got up in the engine. Anyway, Optimus is the guy working on him for me and he's lending me his car until Bee's fixed. 'Cause, you know, I can't exactly drive Mom and Dad's cars 'cause they need them."

"Right. Whatever you say, man." Miles shook his head, used to Sam's bizarre tendencies, and walked over to the Trans Am to check it out, unaware of the huge breath Sam let out once he was out of immediate earshot.

Mikaela came to stand beside Sam and sized Miles up for a moment while the other boy ran his hands over the Trans Am's fender. "We need to come up with some code phrases or something," she stated in a low voice before turning to confront Sam eye to eye. "I think we should tell him."

"Are you cr- No. No, absolutely not." Firmly shaking his head, Sam crossed his arms and kept a close eye on Miles to make sure he couldn't hear them. "It's bad enough that he already thinks I spend too much time with my car. If we tell him, he'll think we've gone insane and call the guys with the white coats on us. No."

"And what are you going to do if one of the Decepticons shows up while he's with you? You remember how _I_ got accidentally roped into this whole thing? Hm? You could at _least_ give him some warning!" Mikaela too was keeping an eye on Miles, but her voice was getting a little louder as she got a bit more adamant. "At least ask Optimus and see what he thinks, alright? You can't just leave him in the dark until he's tossed into the fire."

"So why are you bringing this up now? Why didn't you bring this up, say, almost a year ago right after the war ended, when there was a higher chance of getting attacked? We haven't seen a Decepticon since Megatron died, Mikaela. The chances of them coming back are pretty slim without their leader. I think Miles is safe, and the fewer people who know, the safer the Autobots are. No. We're not telling him."

"Fine. You know what, I'll tell him." Throwing her hands up in the air Mikaela strode toward Miles, mumbling about the necessity of protectors and the contradictory need for secrecy against the safety of another friend.

"No! Mikaela!" Knowing full well how stubborn she could be, Sam grabbed her arm and yanked her back to him. Forcing her to meet his gaze, he hissed, "He doesn't need to know, and it'll be better if he doesn't. He'll be safer that way."

Mikaela stared at him for a moment and then frowned. "Fine. On your head be it."

"You promise not to tell him?" Sam insisted, refusing to let go just yet.

"I won't tell him."

"Please tell me you guys aren't arguing about the whole 'we make better friends than a couple' issue again," called Miles from his seat on Hotshot's hood. It seemed like every time Sam and Mikaela argued, it was about whether to rekindle the short-lived flame they'd had at the beginning of last summer or not.

"Naw, Miles. Mikaela was just complaining about her new jock and she didn't like it very much when I told her to dump him." Letting go of her arm, Sam shrugged.

Mikaela shot him a glare that promised retribution for that comment later and headed over to stand beside Miles. "Get in the car," she told him shortly and headed for the Trans Am's passenger door to get it open for the blond boy to get in the back. "We're going to Lookout. Hurry up and rinse the van off, Sam. I'll help you finish up with the wash later."

"Yeah, because Dad'll love that I took off in the middle of chores. I'm going to finish washing the van now, and then we can go to the lookout." Sam gave Mikaela a stubborn look and bent down to finish the wheel he had been working on.

"You two are scary when you're fighting, you know that?" Miles muttered to Mikaela as he slipped into the car, knowing better than to not obey when she was in a mood.

"Fine, but if you don't hurry up, Miles and I will leave without you," Mikaela threatened and threw herself into the passenger's seat to pull out her phone. Seconds later she was texting away with someone, biting her lip as if she were really concentrating on what she was saying to the person on the other end.

Miles waited for Mikaela to put her phone away before leaning forward between the two front seats. "Okay, so I totally don't buy Sam's story about sending his Camaro to a shop. Do you have any idea what's really going on?"

Lowering her voice and looking at him, Mikaela murmured, "If you're quiet and don't ask Sam any questions about it, I'll show you when we get to Lookout, okay?"

"So you do know what's going on. Jeez, I hate being left out of the loop." Scowling, Miles fell back into the backseat and crossed his arms, impatient for Sam to finish washing the van.

"Sorry," said Mikaela, sounding truly apologetic. Then she leaned out the open car door a bit and yelled, "Sam! Hurry up!"

"This would go a lot faster if you would help me!" he yelled back, almost finished with the third tire.

Huffing, Mikaela leaned back into the seat again but only for a second. In the next instant she was pushing up out of the car and moving around to the hood. "Pop it," she ordered loud enough for Miles to hear her while she ran gentle hands over the seam of the hood of the Trans Am. With as impatient as she was there was no way she would sit still and helping Sam while she was irritated with him wouldn't be the best idea, so fiddling with their new friend it was.

Sam could almost hear Hotshot purring when he was finished with washing Chromia. Mikaela was deep into the workings of Hotshot's engine, tinkering with some unseen component, and Sam just had to smirk when the sunlight hit the Trans Am's headlights in just the right way to make it look like the Autobot was begging him to wait just a little longer before telling Mikaela he was ready to go. Shaking his head, Sam climbed into the driver's seat and called out the window, "You have five seconds to get your hands out of the engine before I start the car. Five... Four..."

Delivering one last caress to one of the wires she had been examining, Mikaela pulled out of the hood and wiped her hands off on a shop rag she had acquired within the ten minutes it had taken for her to get so involved under Hotshot's hood. The metal lid closed with a soft but resounding thunk and she tossed the rag into the trunk before getting into the passenger seat and closing the door. "Let's go then."

It took a couple turns of the key and a mutter of, "Come on, don't be a dumbass," from Sam before Hotshot started and let Sam steer him towards the lookout.

----------

Used as he was to the Autobots doing the actual driving, it was too easy for Sam to zone out behind the wheel, even with Miles and Mikaela chatting it up. One more week. One more week and then he'd finally see Bumblebee again. He needed to develop all the photos he'd taken on the trip so he could show Bee, and maybe New Tyger Pax was close enough to the Grand Canyon for the two of them to sneak out one night and go on a really quick impromptu road trip. Maybe...

"What the hell is _that_?!"

Snapped out of his reverie by Miles' startled exclamation, Sam brought his attention back to his surroundings and spotted Swerve waiting for them at the edge of the lookout. Not Swerve the Corvette, no – Swerve the Autobot.

"Mikaela!" he yelled, trying to steer Hotshot back onto the road, but the wheel refused to turn.

"What?" Mikaela asked innocently as Hotshot sped up just enough to quick turn so that he was practically sliding sideways. The driver's door popped open just as the seatbelt unbuckled and retracted, effectively dumping Sam unharmed onto the ground as the black Trans Am came to a complete stop. Smirking, Mikaela got out, pulled the seat forward and beckoned to Miles. "Come on. There's someone I want you to meet."

Pale and turning paler by the second, Miles shook his head and pressed himself into the backseat, unable to tear his gaze from the giant robot patiently standing outside. "Uh uh. No way am I getting out of the car. Sam! Get back in here so we can get out of here!"

Frowning, Sam ducked his head into the car. "Just get out of the car, Miles. You." He glared at Mikaela. "If we get in trouble for this, you're taking the heat. And you." He kicked Hotshot's doorframe. "Are an ass. Come on, let's see what Swerve has to say."

"Swerve checked with Optimus and Bumblebee vouched for Miles, so if _anyone_ is going to be taking heat here it's _you_. You should have told him a long time ago and most of the Autobots actually agree with me since 'his very presence in our lives puts him in danger and he, like all sentient beings, has the right to know and choose for himself.'" Turning her attention back to Miles, Mikaela offered him her hand and motioned him out with it. "C'mon. I'm sure Hotshot wants to transform and stretch his legs a little, and you can't be in him when he shifts. Let's go. Out!"

"B-B-But I-" Miles squeaked as Mikaela grabbed him by the front of the shirt and forcibly hauled him out of the car, managing to stay on his feet only because of her grip. The sound of metal shifting and gears whirring made him turn around just in time to see the Trans Am fold and stretch in ways that shouldn't have been possible until a second giant robot stood on the cliff with them. Staring up at Hotshot, Miles quietly whimpered.

"And this is part of why I didn't want to tell him," grumbled Sam, striding up to Swerve. "Did Optimus really give the okay?"

Getting down on one knee to put himself closer to Sam's level, Swerve calmly nodded. "I contacted Optimus Prime and after verifying the boy's trustworthiness with Bumblebee, Optimus authorized telling him about us. It is in your friend's best interests."

"Right. Of course." Sam scrubbed his hands over his face in exasperation.

Meanwhile, Mikaela was busily trying to persuade Miles closer to Hotshot as Hotshot knelt in the grass and dirt so that he would seem less imposing. Exasperated, Mikaela very slowly told him, "Miles, these are our friends. You really don't have anything to worry about. Without the Autobots there wouldn't even be an Earth at this point. At least not like the Earth we know. Can't you at least show a little nerve and say hello?"

"You probably shouldn't push him too hard, Mikaela. If he is really scared of me, it'll only hurt his acceptance of the Autobots as a whole," Hotshot soothed and slowly rose to his full height once more. "Swerve! Long time no see! It's been what? A few meta-cycles?" he enthusiastically greeted the other Autobot and offered his fist for a knuckle bash over the tops of the humans' heads.

Swerve easily tapped knuckles with the younger Autobot after climbing to his feet, not surprised at all to see that Hotshot was already picking up human behaviors. "Something like that. I hear you're already getting yourself into trouble and you haven't even been here a couple days," he joked.

"Heh, I'm not in any kind of trouble," Hotshot denied with an insistent shake of his head. "Anyway, how have things on Earth been for you?"

"Comfortably quiet. It's been nice to have some downtime now that the war is in a stalemate."

Rolling his eyes as the Autobots chatted it up as if nothing was wrong, Sam strode back to his human friends and grabbed Miles' arm. The blond was staring in disbelief at the Autobots and his silence was starting to get a little worrying. "Oi. Earth to Miles. Mikaela, I swear, if he's damaged by this, I am never going to forgive you."

Swerve turned his gaze to the still pale Miles. "Is he going to be okay, Mikaela?"

Sizing Miles up for a moment, Mikaela nodded completely ignoring Sam. "It's a lot to take in but he's going to be just fine. I mean, look at Sam and I. We're great and we met you guys under far worse circumstances than this."

"Yeah, but we didn't have a choice about accepting it. It was either go with the flow or die, remember?" Sam pointed out.

"Those are giant robots," whispered Miles, pointing at the Autobots with a slightly shaking hand. "And... they've been here this whole time?"

"Well, since just before the 'terrorist attack' in Mission City," corrected Sam. "These are the good guys, Miles, I promise. Mikaela and I helped them fight the bad guys, and they're staying here on Earth because their home planet... isn't exactly habitable anymore. Blame the bad guys."

"So... you two have been hanging out with giant robots for the past year." Miles was starting to recover some of his color.

Mikaela nodded. "Yeah. Swerve is also my Corvette. Sam's Camaro is actually an Autobot named Bumblebee."

"And Mom's van's name is Chromia, and Dad's truck is Trailbreaker. They got assigned baby-sitter duty to my parents, kind of like how Bee's my guardian and Swerve is Mikaela's." Sam shrugged.

"You two have been hanging out with giant robots... and you never told me?!" Miles yelped, shoving Sam's chest. "Do you have any idea how cool this is?! Giant robots, man! Giant robots!"

"Giant _alien_ robots," offered Swerve, highly amused by Miles' new reaction.

"Giant alien robots that turn into really _hot_ cars," Mikaela added with a playful near-to-flirtatious smile for her guardian.

Hotshot laughed and folded his arms. "I like yours, Swerve. She's a lot more than she seems to be when you first see her."

"You have no idea." Swerve chuckled lightly.

"O-okay! Uncle! Ow! Miles, quit it!" Protecting his head from Miles' continued assault, Sam stepped backwards towards Hotshot in hopes of using the Autobot as a meat shield. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you, but it wasn't our secret to tell! OW! Mikaela! Help!"

"Oh, no you don't! No hiding behind the girl, Sam!" Miles managed to catch his old friend in a firm headlock and delivered a rough noogie until Sam begged for mercy. Releasing Sam from his grip, he turned back to Hotshot and Swerve. "So where do you guys come from? Can you only turn into cars? Why cars? Why Earth? How many more of you are there?"

Hotshot laughed again this time at Miles' suddenly eager curiosity. "Relax, Miles. You and Mikaela have been invited to New Tyger Pax as well, so you'll get all of your questions answered next weekend. But we come from the planet Cybertron, we did not choose Earth so much as Earth held by chance what we were looking for, and there are more of us arriving every so many weeks."

"So how many of you are there right now?" insisted Miles.

"Approximately fifteen. I believe the twins arrived yesterday." Swerve turned to Hotshot for confirmation.

That caught Sam's attention. "Twins? You mean you guys can actually have siblings?" Bumblebee had told them how Cybertronians were "born" from a protoform that had been given "spark," but he had never mentioned the possibility of siblings.

"Yeah they did," Hotshot answered. "Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are... well, I guess you could call them Spark Siblings more than twins, but then the Spark split between them forces them to take on the appearance of the other. It's really just the personality that varies, so yeah, by all definitions they're twins."

"That's so cool," Mikaela murmured and stepped closer to Swerve. Her pleasure in the fact that he had the courtesy to kneel down so he could be closer to eye level with her was plain on her face when she smiled and asked, "So do you have, like, a brother or sister, Swerve?"

"No. I am an... only child, I think your expression is. We don't have parents the way humans do, so the only way to have a sibling is to share a Spark with another Cybertronian."

Miles' face was bright enough to rival a kid who had been let loose in a candy store. "This is so frickin' cool. God, I have a hundred million questions and I don't know what to ask first."

Swerve chuckled. "As Hotshot said, you are all invited to visit our new home this coming weekend. You can ask all the questions you want then, as just the two of us probably won't be able to answer them all."

"I am s_o_ there. You guys are going, right?"

Sam nodded. "Me and my parents got the invitation a while before you two showed up."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," Mikaela promised and then folded her arms. "So what do we want to do now?"

The blond boy immediately sat down on the dusty grass, making it very clear that he refused to be moved. "I want to hear about how you two met these guys."

"That is a story I would not mind hearing again," said Swerve as he readjusted himself into a sitting position.

"We can do that." Grinning, Sam flopped down next to Miles. "So who wants to start?"

"I think you should start with the whole 'Gettin' chased by my car right now. Gotta go,' bit, Sam. Or at least really launch the story from there." The wrinkle to Mikaela's nose definitely told them that she was picking on Sam. However, Miles was the only one who didn't know that it was because of how excited and animated Sam got when he started talking about the day his life was turned upside down.

"And I have yet to actually hear a telling of the story itself. I've only ever been given the barest facts of the whole ordeal," Hotshot agreed as he too settled on the ground on the other side of the humans. He watched as Mikaela sat at last and leaned back on her hands. Hotshot glanced at Swerve then, knowingly, before returning his attention to Sam Witwicky.

"Naw, I won't start there. Actually, the whole mess started when Dad and I went to Bobby Bolivia's Used Car Lot to buy a car..."

**TBC…**

Song Credits:

"Upside Down" by the ATeens

"Right As Rain" by Rosette Stone


	4. Chapter Three

**Adaptations of Love**

By Winged Dreamer and Nightmare

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Author's Notes:

By the way we tweaked the concept of Energon just a bit because we can. It's a minor adjustment really, but it works and it sounds better than any definition we've found in our humble opinion. It also takes care of a lot of questions that we now don't have to answer. Yay!

----------

**Chapter Three**

----------

It wasn't terribly unusual to see a caravan of vehicles traveling together on the busy roads of California's belly. Monterey Bay was only about thirty minutes away and Mikaela could feel the excitement of a highly anticipated trip tingling in her belly. Fidgeting, she reached out and caressed the dashboard. "Turn the AC up a little more please, Swerve?" she asked softly and caressed the steering wheel with gratitude when he immediately complied. It was sweltering, but then early summer in California always was. At least there was beach front where they were headed.

The decommissioned Fort Ord military base, or at least what was left of it that hadn't been taken over by California State University Monterey Bay, was a site of much speculation of late according to Schwiggle the search engine. Word hadn't really reached peaceful Tranquility yet, but apparently the government had erected a temporary wall of solid block and canvassed over a pole-construct that was a temporary and "sectionally" removable roof, leaving only enough room between the University and the apparently re-commissioned base as to be polite and unobtrusive to the students. The whole of Fort Ord covered roughly the same amount of space as the city of San Francisco, so it wasn't like there wasn't room to spare. Mikaela had done her research after finally getting a location out of Swerve. It had taken a little polishing and tweaking, but her Corvette was usually so much putty in her hands these days that it hadn't been any sort of a trial.

"So let me make sure I'm getting this right. The surface is a completely remade military base that they're calling Fort Pax and claiming is for training, research and storage, and the Autobot city is beneath that?"

Her phone chirruped its "you've received a text message" signal, and Mikaela flipped it open to read Swerve's answer. "_That's correct. It was the best they could do for us and really, living underground is pretty much what we're used to anyway in a way_," the message said.

"Still, it kind of sucks that you guys don't get to be outside all the time. I know it's not like you can't come to the surface and mess around as vehicles. There's always traveling to remote locations in the mountains and deserts for vacations and stuff, too, I guess, but still."

The chirrup of the phone interrupted her the second she paused. "_We honestly don't mind. We're just grateful that we've been treated so hospitably once all of the confusions were cleared up._"

Shaking her dark head, Mikaela turned her eyes out the window for a moment, taking in the scenery. "If you guys are happy, then I'm not going to complain. I know there weren't a lot of options. Alaska, as remote as that is, is cold. The desert is too unpredictable and difficult to build in, and the mountains on either coast are too heavily trafficked. Honestly, I'm really glad you guys are so close. It makes me feel a hell of a lot safer."

There was a long moment of silence. Long enough that Mikaela thought Swerve had turned his attention elsewhere for a moment before her phone chirped at her again. Her heart constricted oddly at the sight of the words on its little screen. "_I'll always keep you safe, Mikaela. You never have to worry about that._"

A second chirp distracted her from chasing the oddity of that flutter when it heralded the words, "_We're here._"

Looking up through the windshield as she tucked the phone back into her purse, Mikaela saw huge fence gates swinging open just up ahead of them and felt her heart start to pound just a little in anticipation. And if that was how she felt, she couldn't even imagine what Sam and Miles were going through in the black 1972 Trans Am-Transformer ahead of her or Swerve for that matter, though she had a pretty good idea.

It took her eyes a minute to adjust to the dimmer lighting as they rolled through the second set of gates that allowed them into the construction dome and the military base's embrace. It looked exactly like she had expected a military base under construction to look, the only difference was that there were robots that stood over fifteen feet tall helping with the construction. The mini-convoy rolled to a stop a safe distance from the actual construction, and Swerve popped his door at the exact same time that Chromia and Hotshot did their human passengers all climbing out at once to stare in wonder at the creation coming into being before them. Mikaela barely noticed the sounds of four Transformers resuming their Autobot forms all around her.

"New Tyger Pax is much farther along, but that's because of the help of the tiny piece of the All Spark that Optimus Prime recovered from Megatron's chest," Hotshot informed the Witwickys, Miles and Mikaela as they all looked around in wonder.

"I think that it looks great. It's come a long way since last I saw it," Chromia stated in a distracted tone as her optics scanned the area. They apparently found what she was looking for because a split second later she murmured, "Excuse me."

The deceptively delicate looking Autobot raised a hand and started off toward a hulking shape in the shadows to their left. There was no mistaking Ironhide's gruff greeting as he and Chromia neared each other and stopped to converse. A Cybertronian shout from their right called Swerve's attention and the red Autobot excused himself as well, hurrying over to greet what was presumably a friend – an Autobot that was colored a vibrant blue and seemed to be stuck at ninety-miles-an-hour. It wasn't until Hotshot called out a greeting to an approaching contingent of army personnel that the humans were able to pull their eyes away from the entertaining if blurry movements of the Autobot conversing with Swerve.

Sam immediately recognized the officer at the head of the party coming towards them and grinned. "Look who got the cushy assignment!" he called, striding towards the soldiers to meet them halfway. "I bet this beats fighting Decepticons, huh, Captain?"

"It's Lieutenant Colonel now. Apparently the Mission City Battle warranted two jumps in rank." Grinning in welcome, Lt. Colonel William Lennox firmly clasped Sam's outstretched hand and nodded. "Looking good, Sam. Maybe even… Private material?" He raised a brow that was only half teasing.

"Uh, how about no?" Changing the subject, Sam turned to the laughing officer next to Lennox. "Sergeant Epps! How you been, man? Are you still a sergeant?"

"Yes and no. I'm a First Master Sergeant now." The former Technical Sergeant caught Sam's hand in a friendly knuckle-crusher and laughed when Sam winced. Turning to Mikaela, Bobby Epps winked. "Hey, Mikaela. Beautiful as ever."

"And legal now," Mikaela teasingly greeted and leaned in to kiss his cheek. She then repeated the action with Lennox. "It's good to see you both."

Ron and Judy stepped up then and Miles got a thorough introduction to the troop. There were seven new recruits in the group total. Each soldier was introduced to the guests by name and rank. They were all as awed by the Autobots as Sam and the others were, and all of them were just as thrilled to be at the new base as the entourage with Hotshot. Short stories and comical remarks flew amongst the group of humans.

It wasn't until the last soldier – who had been standing at the back of the group watching the reunion in silence – came forward that the familiar and friendly greetings slowed. Lt. Colonel Lennox clapped the young man on the shoulder and the guy removed his sunglasses, folding them neatly into his left hand before offering his right to Sam with a smile.

Lennox introduced the last new soldier with every ounce of enthusiasm he had introduced the others with despite the drop in overall energy in the group. It was hard to imagine where the man was getting his energy reserves from. "This is Alex. His specialty is recon, and I'd say he ranks a fair few levels above the other boys here. He's going to be your tour guide in the sub-base since there's nothing worth seeing up here. And if I'm not mistaken, Optimus is waiting for you guys at the bottom of the lift."

"Cool. Nice to meet you, Alex." Taking the offered hand, Sam was surprised to find it cool despite the black turtleneck he wore and impossibly smooth. Not a single callous to be felt to Sam's surprise, but that surprise paled in comparison to Alex's _gold_ eyes. Mostly Asian in appearance, the unfamiliar soldier's features spoke of other ethnicities blended in, particularly that strange, slightly slanted gaze. A mop of artfully messy short hair perfectly accentuated his attractive golden-skinned face, a slight contrast to the lithe bulk on his unexpectedly wide frame.

"Dude, your eyes are _yellow_," Miles bluntly pointed out, nose scrunched a bit in mild distaste. And then dodged Sam's elbow.

"They are. Well, actually they're supposed to be brown, but as fate would have it it's a 'brown so gold it looks like warm honey,' so I've been told," Alex agreed with a smirk and obvious good humor. "I'm sorry, but that's the color I came with."

Miles may have dodged Sam's elbow, but he hadn't even seen the cuff to the back of his head coming from Mikaela. "I'm Mikaela. It's nice to meet you, Alex. Thanks for offering to show us around. We really appreciate it."

Ron offered his hand after a reproving look was shot in Miles' direction. "Yeah thanks. My name's Ron, and this is my wife Judy. Sam's our son. We're pleased to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine," Alex replied and shook both Ron and Judy's hands before taking a step to the side and gesturing beyond him. "If you will all just come this way please. Hotshot and I will take you down into New Tyger Pax."

"Ron. Judy. If you need me, I'll be up here with the rest of the Autobots. It looks like they could use some extra hands up here." Trailbreaker had been silent up 'til now, but it was obviously more because of his observation of his surroundings than because of any form of shyness or obliviousness. "Just in case you need me. For, you know, anything."

"Thank you, Trailbreaker," Ron answered with a broad smile. "Enjoy a little time off. You've earned it."

"Thank you." Turning, Trailbreaker headed for a group of hard-working Autobots none of the newly arrived humans had seen before.

After a moment of silence, Alex broke in with a soft, "Shall we?"

Hotshot added an affirmative, "Yeah, we shouldn't keep Optimus waiting too long."

"Alright. Well, we'll probably see you in the canteen around dinner time, eh?" Lennox slapped Sam's shoulder good naturedly then turned to his men. "Alright, boys, let's go. You've met Earth's savior. Remember his face and treat him with the respect he deserves! Now, move it! Back to posts."

The soldiers moved out as Hotshot headed past the humans he was escorting and strode off toward the very center of the upper base. Alex smiled at them and fell into step beside Sam as they followed. "So, how has your first summer of total freedom been so far?" he asked of the brunet beside him as he resettled his sunglasses on his ears and nose.

Sam shrugged, not all that surprised to hear that the military knew he had just graduated. Considering that the government was still keeping a close eye on his family for their protection, it wasn't that much of a stretch. "Okay. Kind of crazy. The folks and I went to the Grand Canyon for a couple weeks right after graduation and when we got back, I found Hotshot sitting in the driveway instead of Bumblebee. Part of the reason I'm here is to return to sender my new 'car' since he's a little temperamental," he joked with a smirk.

"Hotshot is that," Alex nodded with a small laugh. "He's also a hothead, a bit of a prankster and he's generally pretty loud, too."

"I can hear you," Hotshot called back over his shoulder, getting a laugh from the humans behind him.

"But honestly, he wasn't too much trouble for you was he? He's just a bit new in dealing with humans." Alex seemed genuinely concerned, or maybe that was just curiosity leaking into his voice and facial expression.

"Well, there was the time he dumped me out of the front seat for no reason..."

"No reason? You interrupted something absolutely unnecessarily and then you were being pigheaded about telling Miles. Not to mention you called me names, kicked me – after the fact yes, but still – and you insulted Mikaela, and I like her better than you, so don't give me that 'no reason' bullshit." Hotshot's tone said plainly that he was taking the harassment very well, especially with the laughter lurking in his voice modulator. His small speech got a laugh out of his human compatriots again and a glare from Sam, but the giggling tapered off when he stopped beside a non-descript, black Suburban. "Everybody get inside. We've got a ways to go yet and this is far faster and safer than walking."

Hotshot transformed back into his Trans Am self as soon as the Witwickys, Mikaela, Miles and Alex arrived and Alex slid behind the wheel of the Suburban. "We'll see you at the hangar," he informed the rumbling Trans Am. As soon as the words had left his mouth, Hotshot had spun and gunned it, tearing through the growing military city with practiced ease. The Suburban started without trouble and, once everyone was seated and belted in, Alex put it into gear and drove off after the speeding Pontiac.

It was fifteen to twenty minutes later that they finally pulled to a stop beside a large airplane hangar that sat smack dab in the very center of Fort Pax's city sized base. It sat alone in the very center of a large parking lot that made the massive Quonset hut look fairly small. It was into that oddly placed building that they were lead by their escorts through large hangar bay doors and right to a large lift situated in the very center of the building's broad floor plan. A touch of a button on Alex's part and down they went, the lift jerking only once as it started to lower.

The change was immediate. It was apparent that the lift they were on only looked like a normal, clunky military style lift like one would see in any number of video game RPGs of the military variety, but the second it lowered the human and Autobot eye below ground level the very walls around them changed. Lit only by the faint glow of something that was probably electricity once the lift doors above them closed, the walls of the square, bare elevator shaft that fitted right up to the edge of their fenced in platform were made of some gleaming silver metal. The very manner in which the walls were constructed spoke of unearthly craftsmanship and science-fiction movie sets.

"Wow," Mikaela murmured and reached over the railing of the lift to touch the wall. Blue energy harmlessly arced to her fingertips and she drew back in surprise.

"Energon," Hotshot supplied, having transformed back into an Autobot when the walls had changed. "The stores that most of the Autobots bring back with them mostly goes to getting New Tyger Pax up and running. It's being rationed heavily right now which is a disadvantage for some. Like poor Trailbreaker who needs to consume large quantities of Energon to maintain basic functions. We're still trying to devise a safe and stable way to ready what we're harvesting now for consumption and other uses, but we haven't caught back up to Cybertron's technology yet. It'll just take some time."

"Energon?" inquired Alex, his eyes wandering over the walls over the top of his sunglasses.

"Irradiated crystals that come from all over the universe in various forms that can be processed to a liquid state. In the liquid state it's safe for Autobot consumption and usage as a power supply. Originally, it was native only to Cybertron, but Optimus had Wheeljack, Swerve and several other scientists research ways to keep the Energon supply available even if the original supply on Cybertron ran out. It was implanted on uninhabited planets all over the universe by remote controlled Dronebots and once we rebuild the Dronebots we'll be able to harvest a more ready supply. Energon is self-replicating, but it's slow. That's why we were sure that the Energon supply would run out on Cybertron. We were using it up faster than it could really regenerate. The implanted Energon supplies will have had plenty of time to grow and with as many mines as Optimus had created, we shouldn't have to worry about running out for a very long time once we're able to access it."

"Will it hurt the environment of the other planets? I mean, it is a-a foreign invader, isn't it?" Judy looked a little taken aback by the audacity of the Autobots in just implanting a foreign anything into a planet just like that.

"No. It will remain isolated from the environment and do no damage to its surroundings other than take up a little bit of space. Like I said, the planets were completely uninhabited. Barren of all forms of life. We made sure."

"Dronebots," Miles broke in with a grin. "This is so cool."

Sam grinned in perfect agreement and nudged Alex with his elbow, feeling oddly comfortable with the new human. Maybe it was just his excitement at being so close to seeing his friends again, especially Bumblebee. "I thought you were supposed to be our tour guide. Shouldn't you know all this?"

"It's a lot to take in," Alex answered with a small smirk. "I know the base. I never said anything about long-winded, scientific explanations about the way things work."

"So just how far down are we going exactly?" asked Ron, plugging his nose to relieve the growing pressure in his ears.

"How are you guys even managing to build a city underground like this without anyone knowing?" added Sam, looking up to see how far they had already gone. Using Hotshot's height to judge, he would have guessed about three thousand feet so far. Maybe. It was hard to guess without a good frame of reference. "I mean, the fault line isn't exactly stable. How are you not setting it off?"

"Actually, the Autobots are helping the government to stabilize it. Believe it or not, the number of earthquakes that occur in California should drop dramatically in the next two or three years." Alex looked pleased by the information and pulled his sunglasses off, hooking them into the pocket of his army-issue pants, before folding his arms over his chest and leaning back against the railing. "The city of New Tyger Pax and the Fort Pax military base don't want earthquakes any more than the average civilian does."

"Between five and six miles," Hotshot answered Ron's question with a nod to Alex's explanation of the state of the San Andreas Fault line. "At that depth we're well below the power lines, gas lines, sewer systems and subway systems of the cities above us."

"Wow. That's pretty deep." Mikaela too looked up, plugging her nose so relieve the pressure in her ears as well.

"Yeah. So how long is this trip?" Miles leaned over the railing to make the Energon arc to his fingertips. Deciding he liked the sensation, he did it again, "catching" the soft blue light in his palm. "'Cause I don't think we've gone down even a mile yet and we've already been in here, what, ten minutes?"

"It's a long trip, but we don't have any other choice. When the lift is full of just Autobots, it goes much faster, but that's because they aren't as pressure sensitive as humans are." Amused, Alex watched Miles as the other young man played with the arcing blue light. "Touch Sam or Mikaela while you're touching the wall," he advised with a smirk.

Eager to see what would happen, Miles reached out towards Sam and laughed when Energon arced from his fingers to the other boy's arm. "Dude, that is so cool. Jeez, I can't believe I'm here right now." Smirking, he whacked Sam's arm. "And you didn't want to tell me about all this."

Scowling yet clearly amused, Sam whacked him back. "How many times do I have to say that it wasn't my secret to tell and I thought Optimus would want to keep it on a need-to-know basis? So apparently our definitions of 'need-to-know' are different. So what?"

"Boys. We are not having this argument again." Her tone firm, Mikaela stepped between them and gave Sam a small shove to step him away from Miles. "Behave. We're guests here even if this is our friends' home."

Alex and Hotshot exchanged an amused look and Alex resettled against the railing of lift a few times before he was comfortable again. "Well," the brunet began. "At least he took it well. A few of the newer recruits to the base wigged out completely. Those few had to be psychoanalyzed and briefed on acceptable conduct and the like."

"Are they all okay?" asked Ron as he eyed the walls, tempted to try what Energon felt like himself.

"Those poor boys," Judy murmured absently as she herself caressed the wall as it slipped slowly past. She started when the Energon basically caressed back and then giggled. "Ron! Try this! It's like those static globes in those specialty stores!"

Sam quietly groaned and firmly put his back to his mother. And parents said they couldn't take their kids anywhere…

Judy's delight with the walls of the lift tunnel got a chuckle out of Hotshot and a grin from Alex. "Yeah they're all fine," the Japanese youth confirmed. "They just needed to adjust to the idea that humans aren't the only sentient race in the universe. That's all."

"Well, duh, we aren't the only sentient race," said Miles with a roll of his eyes. "What, did they not believe in aliens?"

"It's one thing to believe in aliens. It's another to actually meet one," Sam pointed out.

"Exactly," agreed their tour guide.

Sam looked up the tunnel again. The ceiling couldn't even be seen anymore, the tunnel walls simply converging into a light blue haze far above them. "How fast are we going, anyway?"

"A little less than five miles an hour," answered Hotshot, obviously proud that he was able to provide so much information. "We've already gone down a mile and a half. When there are just Autobots on the lift, it can go up to twenty miles an hour, but humans can't handle so fast a change in pressures and at that speed the pumps can't regulate the pressure in here."

"Pumps?" asked Miles, joining Sam in looking up.

"When the doors close, that completely seals off the shaft. As the lift goes down, pumps force air from outside into the growing space, keeping the pressure in here as equal as possible. We haven't perfected it yet, so there is still some detectable pressure change, but that's mostly because we're going so far down into the earth." The Autobot shrugged in a silent whirring of gears.

"I feel like I'm in a science fiction movie," giggled Judy. Energon continued to arc to her extended fingers, making her hand glow faintly.

The next hour passed in curious conversation about the current size of New Tyger Pax, future plans for the hidden city, and the state of relations between the Autobots and the government. Alex and Hotshot only gave bare-bones answers, cheerfully frustrating their guests with comments on patience since most of their questions would be answered during the tour.

Sam was just about to ask Alex how long he had been in the army when the tunnel walls suddenly brightened. "Are we there?" he asked hopefully. Maybe Bumblebee would be waiting for him at the lift entrance.

Alex nodded and pushed off the railing. "Just a few more minutes. I ask that everyone please step towards the center of the platform."

Sidling closer to Mikaela, Sam murmured, "Who do you think we'll see first?" He double-checked his pocket to make sure his camera was still in there.

"Probably Optimus," she responded and gave a small giggle. "God, I can't believe how excited I am over this. I mean, yeah it's cool, but I'm a grease monkey not a sci-fi nerd. But I think I'm as excited as Miles is."

With a slight inclination of her head, Mikaela brought Sam's attention to his childhood friend. Miles was eagerly bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, eyes darting everywhere. He looked very much like a hyped up squirrel and Mikaela whispered as much to Sam just for laughs. It was at that moment that the lift slowed to a quietly humming stop. All of the humans fell silent as a hissing whine issued briefly from the wall opposite the lift's console.

The giant doors silently opened, and the glowing metal walls were replaced by two sets of complex mechanical legs – one red, blue, and silver and the other simply red and silver – standing a few feet in front of them. Innumerable gears turning, one pair of legs bent to lower the tallest Autobot known to man closer to the humans' level. Kind blue optics swept over the small group before they received a sincere nod of welcome.

"Sam, Mikaela, it's good to see you again. Mr. and Mrs. Witwicky, Miles, it is a pleasure to meet you all. I am Optimus Prime. Welcome to New Tyger Pax." The deep rumbling of Prime's voice echoed faintly in the lift tunnel, masked only a little by the soft sound of machinery as the leader of the Autobots extended a hand in greeting.

Miles could only gape, stunned by how large Optimus was even when compared to the two already large Autobots he had already met.

Grinning, Sam happily set his hand in the center of Optimus' palm. At least eight months had passed since they had last seen each other and Sam would be the first to admit that he had missed the noble Autobot. "It's good to see you too, Optimus. Are you going to go with us on the tour?"

Optimus gave a small shake of his head. "I'm afraid not. I am currently needed elsewhere, but I'm sure Alex will be able to give you a thorough tour of the city. He's down here almost as much as Wheeljack's assistants." Amusement rang in his tone.

"I'll do my best, sir," Alex confirmed with a definitive nod. He did not, however, snap to attention or anything of the sort.

"Optimus!" Mikaela greeted, and placed her hand next to Sam's in the middle of Prime's palm. She then looked over her shoulder. "It's okay, Miles. It's really the only way to shake hands with him. Come here."

At that, Ron and Judy stepped closer as well, waiting for Miles to greet the Autobot leader before doing so themselves.

Unsure, Miles shuffled forward. "H-hi," he muttered, reaching out to put a light hand on one of Prime's fingers.

"Sissy," Sam murmured under his breath in teasing. He just grinned when Miles glared at him.

"It's nice to see you as something other than a big rig," joked Ron as he briefly gripped an unoccupied finger.

Judy patted Optimus' thumb smiling broadly, "How are you doing, dear?"

Prime replied with a polite but amused, "Fine, Mrs. Witwicky. Thank you."

"Optimus," Hotshot greeted with a respectful nod once the humans had begun to back away to allow the gigantic Autobot room to stand.

"Hotshot," greeted Prime while rising to his feet. "Good work on your assignment. You are effectively relieved until your next one." Taking a few steps back, he turned to another towering Autobot waiting patiently at his side, red paneling making up most of their outer body. "Everyone, I would like to introduce you to my partner, Elita One."

Sam's first impression of Elita One was that it was definitely a she, making her the second female Autobot he knew; second was that she looked very much like a female Optimus – kind, patient, and probably killer on the battlefield. The amusement in her optics as she swept her gaze over them probably meant Miles as gaping again. Grinning, Sam waved. "Nice to meet you."

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Samuel Witwicky. It is a pleasure to meet all of you. I hope your stay here in New Tyger Pax is a comfortable and enjoyable one. If you should need anything, any of you, just find the nearest Autobot and they will be glad to see that your needs are taken care of. You are our most welcome guests." Elita One's voice was, like Optimus Prime's, very noble, but where his was proud and powerful hers was soft and sweet.

"Thank you," Mikaela responded with a big grin as Elita One knelt before them and offered a hand in greeting just as her partner had.

"So you're like...his queen?" Miles blurted when he touched her hand with Mikaela and the others.

Elita One chuckled. "No. The Autobots do not recognize rulers like those of olden Earth. I am simply Optimus' partner. I am his consort, yes, but neither he nor I are what you would call a King or a Queen."

"Think Commander and Vice Commander, I guess," offered Ron.

Optimus nodded in agreement. "That would be more accurate. Now, we're holding up your tour. I believe you're scheduled to join the troops for dinner in at six, so we will let you go on your way. If there are any questions you have that Alex cannot answer, feel free to ask the nearest Autobot or myself later." With that, he and Elita One stepped aside, unblocking the lift exit.

Jaws dropped as the vast underground city unfolded before them, their view at last unhindered. Perfectly simulated sunlight emanated from a ceiling that was easily half a mile above their heads, making the bright tunnel they stood in seem dim. Gleaming metal buildings seemed to grow right out of the bedrock they sat on, objects of an alien yet beautiful architecture, Cybertronian hieroglyphs carved into their doorframes. Autobots flowed through the passageways between buildings, some with a clear purpose in mind, others simply meandering as they took a break or waited for something to do. Most had vehicle paneling making up their outer bodies, but a few didn't; smoother, silvery, and more filled out, they looked almost… elemental.

"Excuse me, everyone, I see a couple friends of mine," said Hotshot as he waded through the crowd of stunned humans. "I'll catch up to you later. Optimus. Elita One." Nodding his goodbye, the young soldier jogged over to two identical silvery Autobots.

"Those are the twins, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe," Alex provided with a smile at Sam's questioning glance. "You'll meet them later. Come on. We have a lot to see."

The next few hours flew by in a blur of information that Sam at least was more than happy to absorb. New Tyger Pax was still small, more of a village than a city when it came right down to it since there were barely twenty Autobots living there, yet in sheer scale it felt like a small city, especially since there was a clear division between the individual residences and the buildings where the Autobots worked on projects that were either necessary for their continued survival – the processing of Energon – or for staying on good relations with the American government – the creating of new technologies for which the government would buy the patents, thus providing New Tyger Pax with a source of income. By the time Alex announced that their next stop would be the medical bay, Sam had stopped trying to take all the information in and had shifted his focus to learning where everything was so he could have Bumblebee explain it all to him again later.

Giant double doors parted with the hiss of hydraulics as they approached the front of the Autobot Medical Hangar. Alex informed them that the human medical facilities sat just on the other side of the building they were now entering and that they would see that some other time. It was at that moment that the rapid clock-clock-clock of running heels drew the attention of every human in group. Maggie Madsen launched herself from three or so feet away and hugged Alex tightly around the neck, laughing.

"You're amazing!" she exclaimed. Her Australian accent was as thick as it had ever been. "The data is through the roof. I can't believe you've held it this long! Look, if you can just… hold it – just a little longer – we'll be able to make huge leaps in progress."

Alex carefully put her away from him and Maggie immediately fell into step beside him, gesticulating broadly with one hand while the other held his elbow steering him, and by proxy his following into one of the sectioned off rooms the giant garage that looked like a cross between Joe's Auto Repair Shop and some Cybertronian… Opera House.

"Maggie. I'm tired. I can't hold this any longer," the Japanese youth responded, but… his voice sounded different. Smoother. More cultured. Less… punk.

"Just a few more minutes! Glen and Wheeljack just need a few more minutes, I promise," Maggie insisted.

Sharing a deeply confused look with Sam and Mikaela, Miles tapped Maggie on the shoulder. "Uh, hello, a little out of the loop here. What's Alex supposed to be holding, and why is it such a big deal that he keep holding it?"

It was at that moment that they entered the back half of the room they had just entered, pushing past the curtain that separated the two halves. Ron, Judy, Sam and Mikaela immediately froze at the sight before them. There, reclining on the medical slab and still as death, lay Bumblebee.

**TBC…**


	5. Chapter Four

**Adaptations of Love**

By Winged Dreamer and Nightmare

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Author's Notes: Haha, we're mean. Sorry, but it was just the best cut-spot for the end of Chapter Three. ;; Otherwise Chapter Three would have ended up ridiculously long.

Also, sorry we took so long to update. I went on vacation visiting family for a month, and it's my job to post here while 'Mare takes care of our websites. I promise the next chapters won't take a month to be posted. (Hint hint: the more reviews we get, the faster I'll post.) Happy reading! – Dreamy

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**Chapter Four**

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It was at that moment that they came into the back half of the room they had just entered, pushing past the curtain that separated the two halves. Ron, Judy, Sam and Mikaela immediately froze at the sight before them. There, reclining on the medical slab and still as death, lay Bumblebee. His optics were off, the only glow in his frame coming from the Spark in his chest, and that was faint at best.

Mikaela gasped out, "Oh my god."

"Bee… Oh god, Bumblebee!" Sam shoved past Maggie and Alex, bitter dread coating the back of his throat. He didn't even hear his parents call for him to wait, using the momentum from his running start to haul himself up onto the slab to Bumblebee's side. Metal that was supposed to be warm felt frighteningly cool beneath his fingertips. "God… Bee! Bee, wake up!" he begged, slapping his best friend's arm hard enough to sting his hand down to the bones.

There was no response.

More terrified than he had ever been, more terrified than when Bumblebee's legs had been blown off in battle, Sam desperately looked around the room for someone – anyone – who could help. And found him almost immediately, watching in something akin to perverse amusement from his place on the other side of the slab. "Ratchet, what's wrong with him?!"

"Nothing, Sam," was all Ratchet could say before his voice, loud though it was, was overridden.

"Sam, it's fine. I'm fine. I'm just tired. My natural body is trying to conserve energy, so that I can hold this form long enough for them to get more data readouts." Alex's voice was weary and he looked completely wiped, but he approached the slab himself reaching up toward Sam with one trembling hand. "Come down. Let me explain."

"Wait. What the…" Mikaela's eyes were huge as she glanced between the Autobot on the medical table and the young man they had spent the afternoon with since their arrival to New Tyger Pax. And then her expression changed from sorely confused to utter disbelief. "You're joking! Oh my god! How?"

Ron and Judy exchanged confused looks with each other and then returned their attention to the strange tableau in front of them to await an actual answer. Miles just looked from an elated, dumbstruck Mikaela to a confused and hesitating Sam and gave up trying to understand. Instead, he waited patiently for an answer and an opportunity to ask more questions.

Maggie watched Sam stare down at "Alex" for a moment, her blue eyes concerned. The other humans weren't taking this well. Well, Mikaela was, but she had always been a little different from the Witwickys. "We asked him to do it," she threw in. "To see if the program was good enough to fool those close to him. If he could do that then he could fool anybody, and that's what we needed to know."

Eyes darting from Bee to Ratchet to Alex, Sam could only shake as terror became uncertainty. "F-Fool… I-I don't understand… _How_…?"

"We're calling it a construct," said a white, red, and green Autobot from another corner of the room, drawing everyone's attention. "An extension of the main body built from tiny sensors that perfectly mimic the human body in everything from bone to blood. Think of it as… a laptop that's wirelessly hooked up to a desktop. The ultimate reconnaissance tool." The Autobot seemed to puff up with pride.

"And something that won't blow up, for a change," muttered Ratchet.

Sam's gaze fell back onto the… not-human standing below him, relief starting to melt away the uncertainty. There was something in those gold eyes, something deeply familiar, that begged him to believe everything that was being said, and Sam felt himself giving in. "I-I… You're… You're Bumblebee…"

"Yes, Sam," Alex, or rather Bumblebee, confirmed, his voice the same gentle, cultured British-sounding voice that was so familiar to the boy he spoke to. Once again he wriggled his still unsteady fingers where they reached for Sam's hand. "Come down. They'll explain everything while I disperse and reboot."

After staring at Bee for a moment more, Sam hopped down from the medical slab and yanked his best friend into a crushing hug powerful enough to force the air out of him. "Don't you _ever_ scare me like that again," he firmly whispered order, though his voice trembled. If Bumblebee died… God, Sam couldn't even bring himself to think about it.

Still confused, Miles leaned towards Mikaela and muttered, "Am I missing something?" He didn't understand what was so scary about seeing an Autobot on a table or why it was such a big deal that Alex was really Bumblebee.

Mikaela bit her lower lip in indecision before finally whispering, "It's what's inside that counts, right?"

The construct in Sam's arms tilted his head slightly to glance at Mikaela over his shoulder. Her words were confusing, but the boy holding on to his torso drew his attention almost instantly when Sam tightened his embrace just a bit. Strong arms settled around Sam's shoulders and hugged him tightly in return. He was tired – oh, so very tired – but for Sam he would muster the last of the strength in this faux body and hold him for as long as was possible. "I apologize. I did not realize you would think the worst."

"Yeah, well, remember for next time that when someone's unconscious on a table in a hospital, it generally means something's _seriously_ wrong with them." Sam gave Bee one last squeeze, then slowly released him, loathe to lose the contact after his scare. "Alright, go do whatever it is you need to do."

Bumblebee left his palms on Sam's biceps for a second. With a firm nod, he rubbed one lithely muscled upper arm and then stepped away and past Sam. Almost immediately he began stripping away clothing starting with the turtle neck, revealing a thin but visible scar across his throat, and then the shoes, socks and camouflage pants. His boxers were simple black cotton which he left on as he reached for the hand of the Autobot on the table, but he paused before actually making contact. "I need to scatter and reabsorb the sensors to recharge them," he informed the humans, staring Sam straight in the eyes. "My natural body will reboot in just a few minutes."

With that Bumblebee put a hand to wrist of his Autobot body and the form of "Alex" shivered, fuzzed and staticked until it had completely dissolved into thin air. The black cotton boxers fluttered to the floor.

"Well," Judy exclaimed after a moment of silence. "That was interesting. Who knew?"

Ron glanced at his wife and could only shake his head.

"You okay, man?" asked Miles, still confused about what was going on, when Sam returned to his spot next to him.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Outwardly calm now, inside Sam was shaking with nerves. What if Bee didn't reboot? What if the construct-thing had drained too much of his energy? What if they were lying to him and there _was_ something wrong? Would Bee still be able to transform? What was this program going to do to his cybernetic mainframe? Was he still the same Bee? Just how much had Ratchet and that other Autobot played mad scientist on him?

Reaching out Mikaela took Sam's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "You worry too much. He's fine. See."

Mikaela turned everyone's attention from Sam to Bumblebee with a slight inclination of her head. On the slab, the Autobot's Spark was already glowing brighter and with a few flickers his optics came back online as his chest panels closed. He was sitting up slowly within moments.

"How are you feeling?" Ratchet asked his charge immediately and placed a steadying hand against the back of Bumblebee's shoulder nearest himself.

"Scans indicate nothing out of the ordinary," Wheeljack interjected.

"Fine, thank you, Ratchet," Bumblebee murmured and swung his legs to the side of the slab. Glowing blue optics landed on Sam and Bumblebee's antennae rose and fell for a second before the yellow Autobot said, "Wheeljack and Ratchet have ensured that nothing bad can come of my involvement in their research. There is nothing to fear."

Mikaela sized Sam up out of the corner of her eye and smirked. If Bumblebee was anything like Swerve he kept a constant sensor on Sam's vitals and chemical levels, which meant that that statement was more for Sam than for the rest of them. _He's got it bad_, she thought in amusement. _But… I haven't really got room to talk._

Sam gave a slightly shaky nod and glanced at Wheeljack. "So… what exactly was that construct thing?"

Again the Autobot seemed to puff with pride. "The construct is a small, external, secondary mainframe built out of trillions of cell-sized sensors which perfectly mimic human cells except under the closest scrutiny. To this, we can give a tiny piece of an Autobot's unique Spark, and thus, make it serve as a second body. Given the construct's human appearance, it would allow us to discretely interact with people while our main bodies perform other tasks, maintaining a single consciousness between the two bodies. Right now the wireless connection has a maximum range of sixteen point two four miles and the construct only lasts up to eight hours, but we're working on increasing those. The range will be difficult, but increasing the longevity will be just a matter of increasing how much power the sensors can hold. With continued practice, I'm confident that Bumblebee will soon be able to create a construct that will be able to last at least an entire solar cycle."

"Solar cycle?" asked Miles.

A young heavyset man suddenly appeared by Wheeljack's foot, his eyes magnified by the thick glasses he wore. Glen nodded a cheerful greeting at Sam and Mikaela as he supplied, "Twenty-four hours. He's still getting used to Earth terms. Hey Wheeljack, what do you think about tweaking this section of code over here?" He led the Autobot back to a bank of computers in the corner, each screen covered in lines upon lines of code in both English and Cybertronian.

"Wait," called Sam. "So what happens to the sensors when they run out of power? And the piece of Spark that's in the construct?"

Ratchet glanced Wheeljack's way and took up the task of answering since it was clear Wheeljack was more interested in playing with Glen. "The sensors can be reabsorbed into the main body or dispersed, along with the piece of Spark. Our Sparks can safely sustain minor amounts of damage, and the size of the piece needed to create the construct doesn't even fall under minimal damage."

"Our Sparks are capable of repairing themselves, though it does take longer than our exoskeletons," Bumblebee added as he slid from the edge of the slab to stand on the floor. After a moment of positioning his feet, he crouched. Now closer to Sam's eyelevel, he offered. "I can explain it all to you as we head back up to the ground side. I'm sure you are all hungry, and it is, as you know, a bit of a trip."

Judy's stomach took that moment to make itself known and Ron's gave an answering growl. Judy gave a surprised, "Oh!" and Ron chuckled while patting his gut. "Yeah," he agreed. "Getting old kinda means needing consistency in some things, and it's well past our usual dinner time by now I'm sure."

"It is exactly seven fifteen Post Meridiem," confirmed the large yellow robot. "I can carry us all to lift since that, I think, will be faster. Swerve says he will be meeting us topside."

"Uh, didn't Optimus say the soldiers were expecting us for dinner at six?" asked Miles, turning to Mikaela.

"Yeah," she agreed. "But I think they'll understand just this once."

"I think so," Bumblebee agreed, straightening and stepping around them so that he could fall to all fours and transform. Both doors popped open and the seats leaned forward so some of them could climb into the backseat.

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"You guys are late," called Lennox from the canteen entrance as Bumblebee and Swerve drove up a little over an hour later, their windows down. "What happened? You guys have a party down there or something?"

Stepping out of the little red Corvette she'd crawled into once they were topside, Mikaela shook her head. "Nope. Just lots of questions and drama."

"Drama?"

"Sam."

"Hey!" called the young man in question, almost smacking his head as he stood up from leaning Bee's front seat forward so his mom could get out of the back. "You were just as freaked out as I was!"

"Freaked out?" asked Lennox, curious.

Miles hopped out of the Corvette and grinned. "He thought his car was dead."

"With good reason!" Sam scowled.

"The construct. Bumblebee had us completely fooled, and he was in some kind of power save mode in his robot form all laid out on an exam table. Sam kinda flipped. I admit I was a little worried, too," Mikaela explained.

Lennox chuckled. "I told Epps you guys wouldn't figure it out. I was told about the experiment and I was still surprised when 'Alex' showed up, asking if he could pretend to be a new Private. Thought he was some kid from the university pulling a prank." He nodded towards the inside of the canteen. "Come on. Let's get you guys some dinner, and then I'll show you to where you'll be staying for the night."

Sam waited until everyone else had gone inside before patting Bee's roof. "Think you'll be up to hanging out for a while after dinner?" he asked quietly, hopeful. Bumblebee had seemed really tired after reabsorbing his construct, and Sam wanted to make sure he was completely okay without anyone else around to interrupt.

"_Looking forward to seeing you in the sunshine of my time in a station off the coastline, coming in view_," the radio responded with a crackle.

"Okay. Go take a nap or something. I'll find you when we're done eating. I won't be too long, I promise."

"_They call me mellow yellow_," the radio agreed and then fell silent.

Swerve quietly revved and rolled up alongside Bumblebee, gently nudging Sam's leg with his bumper in a clear show of promise to look after their friend.

"Thanks," murmured Sam. After a brief caress of Bee's roof, he disappeared inside the canteen.

----------

It had taken them quite some time to find a nook of land that would allow Bumblebee to change into his natural form unseen, but they had managed. Luckily, Fort Pax was located near and somewhat within small mountains that were more like large, wooded hills, giving the two of them and any other Autobots that wanted to be topside for whatever reason some privacy. Once they were safely tucked away from prying eyes, Bumblebee found them a comfortable spot, let Sam out of the cab and transformed.

Sam was patient while Bumblebee found himself a comfortable seat and position, but Bumblebee knew without a doubt that Sam would soon be bombarding him with questions. After his reaction in the medical bay the boy couldn't possibly stay quiet for much longer. He'd been terrified, his vitals spiking drastically as he'd dashed straight to Bumblebee's side without thought of his own personal safety in such an unknown situation. The little yellow Autobot had been touched beyond expression by Sam's obvious care and concern, and he had felt no little bit guilty about the ruse he'd played out for the humans he had come to think of as family. It had been necessary but difficult to begin with, and now he felt nothing short of compunctious.

And… even if he would never admit it to anyone… the results of that tiny lie had been well worth the response. Sam had panicked, become distraught, near-to-frantic with worry and fear, even dread, when he had thought, even for the briefest of moments, that Bumblebee's life had been in danger. It was only the second display of deeper emotion from Sam that Bumblebee had experienced in their oh-so-short time together.

But… it gave him hope.

"How are you feeling?" Sam asked the instant Bee had looked comfortable for at least half a minute, his patience giving out. He had barely been able to eat anything at dinner, anxious to get back to his best friend and make sure everything was alright. Just because Bumblebee had claimed to be feeling fine in Wheeljack's lab didn't mean that was the case now, because there might have been some side effect of the construct program they hadn't accounted for and took a couple hours to manifest or something.

"I am fine," Bumblebee assured his human charge with a nod. "There is nothing to worry about with Wheeljack and Ratchet heading the research and development of the Construct Program."

"You sure you're fine. 'Cause it's okay if you're not, no shame in admitting it. You were really tired when you came back online and you only had about a half hour's rest after we got back up here. I mean, if I were maintaining something like that for hours, I'd be tired too. Is that program even safe? I mean, using a piece of your Spark and so much of your energy. What happens if something attacks your real body while you're using that program?"

"I will not always be so incapacitated, Sam. When the program has been completed I will have fewer limitations. It will be as much a part of me as your heart is a part of you. If there were an attack, I would most likely immediately disperse the construct and fight. Our Sparks repair themselves from minor damage without any trouble. My energy reserves will grow to accommodate the new adaptation to this planet..." Bumblebee paused then shook his head a little. He was rambling when all he really needed to say was, "Sam, I promise you. There is nothing to worry about."

Amused and deeply touched by the young human's adamant concerns, Bumblebee reached out and very gently wrapped one hand around Sam's upper torso and hips, lifting him up and placing him on one of Bumblebee's thighs.

With the way the robot was sitting – one leg semi-bent, and the other curled and semi-flopped to the side – Sam was placed on the yellow panel that became the left side scoop behind the driver's door. The boy's legs Bumblebee let hang against the inside of his thigh while the hand that had lifted Sam curled close to Sam's left side, allowing the boy security in his precarious position as well as very nearly embracing him in the process. Sam's heart rate was faster now than it had been even a few short moments ago, and Bumblebee felt his Spark heat in answer. It could just have been very wishful thinking on his part. Maybe he was reading too much into everything. Bumblebee just couldn't help but let hope rise steadily within him. Sam cared. The boy cared so much about what happened to him... was it possible? Could Sam actually feel something even close to what the reconnaissance specialist felt for the boy? It was almost too much to hope for, but _Primus_, Bumblebee would have done nearly anything for a stronger inkling of Sam's truest feelings.

Frowning, Sam wormed his arms around Bee's middle finger and hugged it tight to his chest. "You better not be saying that just to make me feel better. If anything bad happens while they're experimenting on you, I swear I'll beat up Ratchet and Wheeljack for playing mad scientist on you, then I'll beat _you_ up for letting it happen," he promised, squeezing Bumblebee's finger. Voice dropping to just above a whisper, Sam added, "Jeez, I was so excited to see you after those three weeks and here I am completely ruining it by being a mother-hen."

In the mood that Sam was in right then, Bumblebee knew there was no way that he could talk the boy down. Sam was worried and he would continue to be so until things proved to be as Bumblebee has said them to be. So, without a word, Bumblebee returned Sam's embrace the only way he could. Bringing his right hand up, he laid his palm feather-light against the top of Sam's head, curling his fingers around the boy's head and shoulders and pulling him closer to the Autobot's main body with his left hand. Leaning over the enclosure his hands created, Bumblebee sheltered Sam with the security of his body.

The tension gradually flowed out of Sam as he allowed himself to relax against the comforting shell of Bumblebee's hands. He knew he would continue to worry until the construct program was completed, but there was no point in obsessing over dangers he was potentially just making up in his head, and Sam _didn't_ want to smother Bee with his paranoia. Especially not when today was supposed to be a happy occasion. Forcing his lingering fears down to mull over later, Sam patted the palm above him until Bumblebee pulled it away so they could look at each other.

"So… why Asian?" he asked.

"Isn't that what you would have expected? You did think I was Japanese when you first saw me."

Sam blinked up at him in surprise, then laughed until he was breathless. "I did, didn't I?"

Bumblebee laughed, the sound oddly electronic and yet so very human. "Yes, you did."

Smiling affectionately, Sam rested his chin on the finger wrapped around his upper torso. "You are so weird."

"I will take that as a compliment," replied the Autobot as he leaned back until his frame was straight again. Turning bright blue optics to the starry night sky, Bumblebee fell quiet, unexpected thoughts of his former home plaguing his processors all of a sudden. It was probably something about the peace and tranquility of the moment triggering memories of vorns gone by now dead forever in distant, deep space.

For a long, peaceful moment, Sam watched Bumblebee stare at the sky, wondering what was going through his mind. It was so wonderful to be able to spend time like this with Bee again, just the two of them. Three weeks apart had been way too long. "What are you thinking?" he quietly asked.

"About Cybertron," came the soft reply. Bumblebee's gaze lowered to Sam once more and it seemed as if, had he the facial mobility of his companion, he would have been smiling ever-so-softly. "I wish sometimes that things had turned out differently. But then I realize, had that been reality, I would have never come to Earth. Would have never met you. I don't wish to believe in a reality like that. For all the bad that I have seen in my lifetime, for all the evil, I have seen so much more good. It's at that thought that I realize that I would not have this reality any other way."

"Oh." To such a deep, profound revelation, Sam had no reply. All he could do was stare up at the point in the sky Bee had been looking at and wonder about living on a world where everything and everyone was made of metal. Earth with its organics was such a different planet than Cybertron. Sam couldn't imagine completely uprooting himself and moving across the universe to a world where nothing was familiar, then adapting almost instantly to blend in and live peacefully. Their ability to do just that was what made the Autobots so fascinating, admirable, awesome. And Bumblebee was the strongest of them all, the one who had been on Earth alone for years, the one best able to adapt to their new home. The one so intrigued by his new neighbors that he insisted on living among them instead of with his own kind. With _Sam_. Chest oddly tight, the young human hugged Bee's finger tighter and scooted over his leg until he could rest his back against the Autobot's stomach.

The silence stretched for many long minutes between them, comfortable and familiar. The human sitting astride his thigh gradually relaxed until he was near to languid and Bumblebee at last felt the tension in his own body unwind. Free of unnecessary astriction, the scout leaned back on the hand Sam did not cling to, reclining them both.

"Hey, Bee?" murmured Sam at last, gently ending the quiet they had fallen into.

"Yes, Sam?" the Autobot answered in an equally low manner.

"What did you look like on Cybertron? Like the twins, all silver and beefy and stuff?"

"Silver and..." Bumblebee paused for a moment and then chuckled. "You're wondering about my natural form?"

Sitting up a little, Sam turned onto his side and looked up at Bumblebee. "Well, yeah. Kinda hard not to after today."

"I understand. Hop down."

Curious to see what Bumblebee had in mind, Sam let go of his finger, slid off his leg and took a few steps back, giving the Autobot room. He watched intently as Bee rose to his feet and took one step back, then went very still. The change was almost immediate. Yellow panels faded to silver and were absorbed by Bee's body as his structure filled out; the door-wings disappeared, making his shoulders seem larger, broader; some gears became larger, some smaller, all more appropriate for the task they had; new panels emerged to cover Bee's frame until he looked dramatically more solid and fluid. In less than a minute, Bumblebee changed from an intricate conglomerate of rearranged car parts to a truly formidable-looking soldier. To say Sam was amazed would have been a severe understatement.

"Wow," he whispered, eyes huge.

"I assume showing is often better than telling." Bumblebee's voice was infinitely amused. Sam's expression was priceless and the once-yellow Autobot couldn't help but preen under the attention of the human he was so very much in love with. "Is it what you thought it would be?" he asked curiously after giving Sam a moment to look his fill.

"Sort of. I didn't really know what to expect since I've never had a chance to compare what any of you used to look like and what you look like now. You're so much more... _solid_ like that." Sam let out a short, excited laugh. "It makes your car form look fragile."

"Truthfully, that is untrue of any of my forms, but I would say my camouflage form is the weakest of all of them if I had to gauge." Sam's pleasure in seeing Bumblebee's natural form sent a tickle of pleasure through the Autobot's circuits, though he did his best to hide it from the young human. The last thing he wanted to do was raise Sam's suspicions after all.

Deeply curious, Sam strode forward and ran a hand over Bumblebee's knee, feeling the different texture of the Cybertronian panels and seams. Bee's joints looked so much more flexible and human-like in his natural form. Between the small, closely overlapped panels, Sam could feel a thin film of a warm oil-like substance. "So what do you transform into when you're like this? I remember Megatron turned into some kind of weird jet or something."

"I turn into something like a car that is not all that different from the Camaro. The frame and other such details are definitely not the same, but many of the basics are," the Cybertronian explained as he once again settled on the ground. Offering Sam a hand up, Bumblebee let his thighs fall comfortably wide so that Sam could resume his perch.

Sam gladly accepted the offer, climbing back up onto Bumblebee's leg. It gave him the opportunity to examine Bee's chest and stomach plating, an opportunity he took full advantage of. "This is so cool," he murmured, running a hand along one of the seams. "I can't quite think of how to put it, but it's like you're more… real this way. Not that you're not real in your camouflage form, but… it's more _you_. Which would make sense, because of course it's more you, since this is what you're supposed to look like." His lopsided smile somewhat apologetic, Sam glanced up at Bee. "I'm babbling, aren't I?"

"I don't mind," his Guardian told him gently, wriggling a little beneath Sam's inquisitive touch. "I'm just very glad that you're not put off by my actual appearance."

"How could I be put off? You always look awesome. This is just more awesome than usual." Sam grinned.

Bumblebee chuckled. "I am not sure why I thought you might be, but it probably has something to do with the fact that, in this form, I am totally alien to you resembling nothing you've ever known. At least in my camouflage form you see the familiar wires, gears and parts that compose the Camaro. In this form, I need none of those things to function. Well, there are gears and things. We are not human. Still, I am very glad that you are taking everything so well."

The very tip of one thick finger ran from Sam's shoulder to the middle of his forearm in a gentle and friendly caress sort of like a pat on the shoulder.

"Actually, you look more human this way. Almost as if you're just a person wearing a really, really big exoskeleton waiting to hop out at any moment." Laughing softly, Sam turned around and scooted back until he could lean his back against Bee's stomach. "I bet you miss being like this, huh?"

"I... do and I don't. It's not easy to explain. I am me no matter which form I take, but at the same time _this_ is who I am." Resting one hand on his thigh before Sam, Bumblebee again planted his other palm behind him and reclined them both, turning his optics to the skies and added in a soft voice, "Being like this makes me wonder who else is out there, making their way back to us."

"How many of you were left when you left Cybertron to go after the All Spark?"

"I am... unsure. There were many that I saw while I was being repaired that came in to thank me for all that I had done to protect the All Spark, but I cannot be sure that I will ever see many of them again. The battle was still being fought, and they could only spare me a few kliks to a few breems of their time before they were back on the battlefield again. I do not know what their missions were or where any of them were stationed except for my own contingent, so I do not know what they were up against well enough to even fathom their odds of surviving long enough to rejoin us here."

Letting out a thoughtful hum, Sam twisted so he could look up at Bee and opened his mouth to speak. The crackle of fire in the distance coupled with the sound of something large falling cut him off, and the human turned just in time to see what looked like a meteor land in the water close to Fort Pax. He immediately looked to Bee again. "Was that an Autobot?"

Staring out at the landing site, Bumblebee didn't respond.

"Bumblebee?" called Sam, the beginnings of fear twisting his gut. "That was an Autobot, right?" If it was a new Decepticon...

"It was," Bumblebee finally confirmed and turned bright, electric blue optics to his human. "That was Arcee."

"Arcee?" The name was familiar, and Sam sifted through the stories Bumblebee had told him about Cybertron – or rather, had shown him. While Bee wasn't able to create holographic projections in the same fashion as Optimus, he was still able to project images and had shown Sam some of his memories of Cybertron by projecting the video files onto whatever large, mostly flat surface had been around at the time. "Oh, you mean one of the other soldiers from the Tyger Pax battle?" he asked, remembering a small Autobot who had fought with Bumblebee to protect the All Spark before it had been launched into space.

"Yes. Arcee was captured alongside myself and the rest of our unit at Tyger Pax. She is a wonderful being with a very sweet personality and a wonderful outlook on just about everything. I think that you will like her very much, Sam." Fingers that could easily dent metal wrapped around Sam's waist with the care one would devote to a newborn, and Sam found himself lowered gently to the ground out of the way of the rising Autobot. Even as he rose Bumblebee began to revert back to his camouflage form, yellow plating re-emerging from his metallic hide even as the rest of him began to shrink and reform into the makings of the 2009 Chevrolet Camaro they both favored. "We should head back. It's getting late, and you've had a very long day."

Sam glanced at his watch. "It's barely midnight. Unless you're really tired from running that program so long, I say we should stay out at least a little longer. Gotta make up for the past three weeks, right?" he added with a grin, ignoring the odd fluttering in his stomach. For some reason, Bumblebee's clear enthusiasm at Arcee's arrival unsettled Sam and the human didn't really want to think about why, but the want to spend tonight in Bee's company had definitely gotten stronger at the mention of Arcee being female.

"You're not tired after all of the driving and walking around on the base?" Bumblebee sounded a little surprised. From what he knew of his charge, Sam found most busy days to be exhausting. Not that he was complaining about getting to spend more time with the boy. It was just that Bumblebee wanted to make certain Sam wasn't foolishly pushing himself into illness. The human body seemed so fragile at times.

"Not in the least." A small lie, but Sam could definitely stay awake for at least a couple more hours before the excitement of seeing New Tyger Pax and seeing Bee again completely wore off. So what if he spent half of tomorrow asleep?

The Autobot nodded once and crouched, transforming himself into the Camaro in thousands of smoothly executed adjustments. Once the car had settled the driver's door popped open and the radio buzzed to life. "_Let's take a drive. Let's take a drive. Hold on tight baby we're about to go. Don't need no destinations for me to go. Why don't we go for a drive?_"

Grinning, Sam slid into the driver's seat and ran his hands over the steering wheel in an affectionate caress. "Why _don't_ we go for a drive."

----------

All was quiet… which was surprising considering the number of brash young men pumped up on camouflage-colored adrenaline she was surrounded by. Then again… it was five in the morning, so other than the guard patrols and maybe the Autobots miles below the Earth's crust, Mikaela was probably the only person awake. The soft growl of a familiar engine changed that "probably the only person" to "one of the very few people."

Bumblebee drove up to the barrack that Mikaela, Miles and the Witwickys had been given as private quarters and rolled to a slow stop. For a long moment everything was quiet again and she was beginning to wonder if Sam was perhaps actually asleep inside the Autobot's lovingly protective shell when the driver side door popped, and Sam slipped out. He leaned back into the car to look at the radio as he talked to it, and she caught the faintest snippet of music before Sam stepped back and shut the door. The little yellow Camaro almost instantly went quiet. Sam turned to walk away and brown eyes met blue.

"Hey, Sam," Mikaela called to him in a soft voice so as not to disturb Bumblebee, though she knew the Autobot was probably well aware of everything around him right down to her troubled chemistry. "Have fun out there tonight?"

It was obvious – at least to her, the fellow sufferer of an incurable affliction (or rather affection) for an alien robot that stood almost ten feet above her head – that Sam had it as bad for his "Camaro" as Mikaela had it for her "Corvette." The only difference between them was that Mikaela was fully aware of the fact that – if she had been able to gather up the courage to say anything to Swerve – she could so totally be dating her "car" right at that very moment and would have probably – provided the red Autobot felt the same – been finding some way to consummate their feelings for each other. It had always been her dirty little secret that a truly fuckable car was a car she wouldn't mind getting off over, in, on or with had she been provided with the right means to do so. And Swerve – sentient, sexy, funny, _exotic_ Swerve – was so much more than just a truly fuckable car.

So quickly after the newly arrived Autobot had been assigned as her Guardian, Mikaela had found that she was enamored of having her very own Bumblebee. At first that was how she had thought of him. Swerve wasn't all that different from Bumblebee, but that was because at first he had been just a little bit shy. That had changed in very little time. As she had always sworn she would do with any classic car she ever owned, Mikaela washed and waxed the little red Corvette until he gleamed a bright, fiery red in the sun, telling herself that it would seem weird to the whole neighborhood if the daughter of a known grease monkey didn't treat a beautiful muscle car with that kind of respect. Swerve had warmed up to her under all of that attention and in no time at all they'd worked out their own unique ways of communication. Then he'd let her under the hood and the bonding had really begun. It didn't take Mikaela long at all to figure out what felt _good_ and what only felt like a solid massage beneath that glossy red sheet of metal. The things that felt good were more often applied as something Mikaela called "a good rub down." Things had just progressed from there thanks to a naughty side of herself that was surprising her a little more everyday.

Sam coming to a stop right in front of her pulled her from thoughts that probably weren't appropriate in front of company even if they _hadn't_ been about an alien robot that turned into a car. "I'm sorry, what was that?" she asked, well aware of the fact that he had been talking to her and that she had completely zoned out on him.

Smirking, Sam leaned back against the barrack wall next to her, hands in his jacket pockets. It may have been summer, but nights and early mornings on the California coast were often cool even after hot days. "I said, what are you doing up so late? Or should I say early?"

"I couldn't sleep." Turning her eyes back to the ground in front of her feet, Mikaela shifted until her aching butt stopped feeling so numb. She'd been sitting on the barrack steps for the better part of several hours, and her rump was only _now_ beginning to protest? Rolling her eyes a little, the young woman got to her feet and stretched. "I couldn't stop thinking."

"About what?"

For one long moment Mikaela just looked at Sam, gauging his potential responses to anything she might tell him about the truth. At last she looked away and fiddled with one of the rings on her slender fingers. "About Swerve. And what he'd look like. If he were human, y'know?"

"Oh." Sam let out a thoughtful hum and looked towards the horizon, where a false dawn was just starting to light the sky. It wasn't that big of a surprise to hear that Mikaela was wondering such a thing. She spent just as much time with Swerve as Sam did with Bee and after seeing Bee's construct, it wouldn't take much to consider how any of the other Autobots might appear in a human form. "So what do you think he'd look like?"

"I don't know..." Wrinkling her nose a bit, Mikaela scanned their surroundings. "I'm biased, so I couldn't even begin to guess."

"And so you stayed up until dawn trying to figure it out?" Sam's question was only a little teasing.

"I think... I'm in love with him." She hadn't really meant to say the words aloud. Still, it was liberating to actually say them. And of all the humans who knew about the existence of the Autobots, Sam was the most likely to understand her feelings. He seemed to be the only other human who truly accepted the Autobots as sentients and equals without question. Maybe William Lennox and Robert Epps thought of the Autobots the same way that she and Sam did, but she wasn't entirely certain of that. So telling Sam it was, and maybe, just maybe, Sam would convince her to tell Swerve. Glancing over to the gleaming yellow Camaro, Mikaela got the impression that Bumblebee was politely pretending that he couldn't hear a word of what they were saying. Well, at least he wouldn't be telling Swerve. She hoped.

For a brief moment, Sam could only stare at her in surprise. "You… oh… Wow. With Swerve?"

"Yeah."

"Wow." Sam turned back to the sunrise and just shook his head a little, still absorbing. It wasn't so much that Swerve was the one Mikaela thought she was in love with… No, no, it definitely was. Despite how much Sam considered the Autobots to be nothing more than really big metal humans, he had never considered the potential of having any sort of relationship other than friendship with any of them. While wrapping his mind around the idea wasn't uncomfortable, it was certainly a little weird. "Well, I gotta say Swerve is definitely a significant improvement on the guys you usually pick as boyfriends, but… how would that even work?"

"It probably wouldn't. Or at least I thought it couldn't. Not until I met 'Alex' today." Mikaela rose in a rush and started pacing. "I mean, they can pretend to be humans. If what everyone is saying is true, then they're capable of emulating us completely, right? I love him as he is, but… now there's a chance that we can have a _real_ relationship. One that isn't just looks and jokes-that-aren't-really-jokes and awkward touches. Right?"

Bright blue eyes shone with hope as she stopped dead right in front of Sam and wrapped one arm around her stomach while nibbling on the edge of a finger.

Sam shrugged helplessly. "I-I guess… it could be possible. If Wheeljack and Glen can perfect the construct program, then I can't see a reason why not. You'd have to talk to them and to Swerve, because the program's still in the developmental stage, so they're still tweaking it a lot. Bee's been doing almost nothing but doing whatever Wheeljack wants him to do so they can get data."

Eyes darting over to said Autobot, Mikaela nodded slowly and lowered her hand from her mouth. "I should just talk to him, shouldn't I?"

"_…What you must understand. You can't let the chance to love him pass you by._"

The music from the car's radio was loud but soothing, and Mikaela smiled as she turned to Sam again and hugged him. "Thanks. Go get some sleep. You look tired."

Warm arms easily returned the embrace, holding her close. "Anytime. And yeah, I plan to sleep until lunch, and I suggest you do the same since I'm guessing you didn't get a lick of sleep."

"I don't think I'll be able to. At least not until I talk to Swerve now. I know my brain won't shut off without resolution. Go get some sleep." Kissing Sam's cheek, Mikaela pulled away, flashed Bumblebee a quick smile and slipped past her ex-boyfriend through the door to their barrack. She needed her cell phone.

Shrugging, Sam tossed Bee one last "Good night" and went inside. As he stripped down to his boxers, his mind spun around the news of Mikaela being in love with Swerve. To use the construct program to make such a relationship possible… Would it work? _Could_ it work? Sam sighed and sat down on the bed, convinced he wouldn't be able to fall asleep now with those thoughts running circles around his brain.

He was asleep the instant his head hit the pillow.

**TBC…**

Song Credits:

"Looking Forward To Seeing You" by Golden Smog

"Mellow Yellow" by Donovan

"Let's Take A Drive" by Billy Burnette

"Tell Him" by Celine Dion


	6. Author's Note

To all readers of "Adaptations of Love"

It is our sad duty to inform you that "Adaptations of Love" has been discontinued. Upon rereading what we have done, we have decided to completely rewrite it. While we feel that our characterization and relationship developments were good, our plot was very loose and weak, and we were missing a solid conflict to give the story structure as a whole. At the moment, we are working out a new, tighter plot with a good conflict that will hopefully not only keep you guys interested, but keep us interested enough to actually finish the story.

Please be aware that the rewrite will probably not come out until after the release of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." We are currently lacking in concrete inspiration, but the second movie will be more than enough to get the juices flowing again.

Again, we apologize for leaving you hanging with an incomplete fic. Hopefully we'll have something to give to you soon. In the meantime, for anyone who's interested, we have many complete DCU and Eyeshield 21 stories on our LiveJournal and we invite you to go check those out if you are so inclined. The master story list can be found here: http : / / dreamynytemare . livejournal . com / 30481 . html

- Nightmare and Winged Dreamer 


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